Togo and Hungary agreed on 25 September 2026 to accelerate construction of two fecal sludge treatment plants in Greater Lomé that were first set out in a 2025 memorandum with Hungarian engineering firm Pureco, according to a 28 September 2026 report from Togo First.
Key takeaways
- Talks between Council President Faure Gnassingbé and Hungary's ambassador Tamás Fehér Endre on 25 September 2026 focused on the two planned fecal sludge treatment plants, per Togo First.
- The project stems from a 22 January 2025 memorandum of understanding between Togo and Pureco, reported by Togo First.
- Two sites in Greater Lomé — Aképé and Djagblé — have been identified, with confirmation still pending studies, according to Togo First.
- Pureco's design, already deployed in Ghana at Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale, covers mechanical pretreatment, biological treatment, clarification and sludge dewatering, per Togo First.
What happened
The renewed push was announced after a meeting in Lomé on Friday 25 September 2026 between Council President Faure Gnassingbé and Hungary's ambassador to Togo, Tamás Fehér Endre, according to Togo First. The Hungarian diplomat said the talks focused on the construction of sustainable wastewater treatment plants in Greater Lomé.
"The talks focused on the construction of sustainable wastewater treatment plants in Greater Lomé," Hungary's ambassador to Togo, Tamás Fehér Endre, said after the meeting, as reported by Togo First.
The two-plant programme dates to a 22 January 2025 memorandum of understanding that Togo signed with Hungarian company Pureco, a deal that also covers modernisation of sanitation infrastructure in the capital, according to Togo First. Under that agreement, Pureco will design and build the facilities at Aképé and Djagblé, in line with the Greater Lomé Sanitation Master Plan, though the sites still had to be confirmed through studies planned under the partnership.
Pureco has prior reference plants in Ghana, with its fecal sludge treatment technology deployed in Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale, per Togo First. The Greater Lomé facilities are intended to improve management of fecal sludge from households and premises not connected to sewer networks.
The project complements ongoing government sanitation and flood-control works, including the Togo Urban Development Project (PAUT 2), and now needs to move from the January 2025 memorandum into construction, according to Togo First.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Project | Two fecal sludge treatment plants in Greater Lomé |
| Contractor | Pureco (Hungary) |
| Planned sites | Aképé and Djagblé |
| MoU date | 22 January 2025 |
| Political meeting | 25 September 2026, Lomé |
| Reference plants | Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale (Ghana) |
Specification read
S1 does not report a design flow in m³/day, a population equivalent, or a pollutant load for the Aképé and Djagblé plants, so no project-specific capacity figure can be quoted from the sources. Fecal sludge treatment facilities of this class serving un-sewered peri-urban catchments in West Africa typically fall in the 50–500 m³/day range, with daily throughput driven by the number of septic-tank and public-toilet empties arriving by truck (general industry range, not from the sources).
The treatment train Pureco describes for its fecal sludge line — mechanical pretreatment, biological treatment, clarification and sludge dewatering — corresponds to a receiving station with screens and grit removal feeding a biological stage (commonly an SBR, MBBR or high-rate aerobic reactor at this scale), followed by a clarifier, sludge thickening and a mechanical dewatering unit such as a decanter centrifuge or belt press. The 25 September 2026 meeting bears on the front end of that train: getting the two plants from MoU into procurement, site confirmation and construction, rather than the detailed process selection, which was already fixed in the 2025 agreement, per Togo First.
If your plant looks like a municipal fecal-sludge receiving and treatment facility in the 50–500 m³/day range handling septic-tank and public-toilet sludge with high BOD/COD and TSS, no sewer connection and a tight discharge consent, this announcement is a direct read-through: two turnkey, vendor-led reference plants of the same class your enquiry is likely being benchmarked against. For buyers scoping similar infrastructure, the comparable build, warranty and performance-guarantee structure is covered in Wastewater Treatment Plant Builder Warranties & Performance Guarantees: 2026 Buyer's Guide, the wider sludge-treatment product line sits under Sludge Treatment, the municipal project category at Municipal, and capex/opex benchmarks for 2026 builds are in Water Treatment Infrastructure Cost per MGD in 2026: CapEx, OPEX & Drivers, with the upstream clarification stage mapped to Water Purification.
FAQ
What is actually being built in Greater Lomé?
Two fecal sludge treatment plants, one each at Aképé and Djagblé, designed and built by Pureco under a 22 January 2025 memorandum, per Togo First. No plant capacity in m³/day has been reported.
What treatment stages does the Pureco process cover?
Mechanical pretreatment, biological treatment, clarification and sludge dewatering, as deployed at Pureco's Ghana reference plants in Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale, according to Togo First.
What is the current status and likely lead time?
The project is still moving from the January 2025 memorandum into construction, with site confirmation pending studies, per Togo First. A typical donor-financed fecal-sludge plant in this class runs 24–36 months from financial close to mechanical completion (general industry range, not from the sources).
How does a buyer benchmark Pureco against other suppliers?
Side-by-side evaluation should compare the four-stage train against alternative fecal-sludge packages, request reference-plant data from the Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale sites noted by Togo First, and tie warranty and performance-guarantee terms to the 2026 buyer's-guide framework in Wastewater Treatment Plant Builder Warranties & Performance Guarantees: 2026 Buyer's Guide.
